Expansion of open market could raise tens of millions

The Environment & Infrastructure Committee wants to reverse a recent decline in the number of private homes on part A of the open market by adding more than 200 over the next few years, which would take the total number back to about 1,700.

Inscription on the open market can add hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds to the value of a property and some politicians believe homeowners should pay a high fee for that windfall.

‘What is certain is that there will be some form of fee proportionate to and reflective of the significant uplift in value that an open market inscription confers,’ said E&I president Lindsay de Sausmarez yesterday.

‘That’s important because we think there is a genuine opportunity to raise significant additional revenue for public finances, which fund our public services, at a time when they are under real pressure.

‘It’s one of the benefits of the updated policy for inscriptions, along with helping to stimulate new developments, without having a detrimental impact on the values of existing open market properties.’

The committee is understood to be considering charging a flat fee of at least £250,000 to inscribe a property on the open market. It has received advice from stakeholders that it could charge as much as two or three times that. Other possibilities include charging a percentage of a property’s notional uplift in value, and auctioning off inscriptions.

E&I will finalise the new charges before publishing its new inscriptions policy by the end of January and submitting associated legal changes to the States for debate by the end of March.

‘We have not yet made a decision on the level of fees or the exact mechanism for administering them,’ said Deputy de Sausmarez.

‘We are engaging with stakeholders as we consider a number of options, so any rumours of what the fees will be really are unfounded speculation at this stage.’

E&I wrote to owners of existing open market part A properties yesterday in an effort to reassure them about its plans.

It told them that new inscriptions would be released ‘at a controlled rate’, possibly in single figures each year, and advised that ‘therefore property prices should be unaffected’.